ABSTRACT
The economic system of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) has, since its introduction after the Second World War, been characterised by a high intensity of reform. The causes, and in particular the effects, of these institutional reforms are the subject of controversy and of differing evaluations in both West and East. The non-co-ordinated co-existence of plan- and price- orientated allocation of goods thus gives rise to a third gap in the economic calculation of socialist centrally planned economies, in which is to be seen one of the most important causes of economic reform. In the light of the allocative inefficiencies in centrally planned economies diagnosed in the second section, it finally remains to assess how far these can be eliminated or at least modified by the numerous measures of the New Economic System (NES) concept and also of the present 'economic strategy'.
